Authors' Books
The Authors' Books, mostly known as Once Upon a Time Books, are magical items featured on ABC's Once Upon a Time. They first appear in the first episode of the first season. History In the Enchanted Forest, after the current Author, Isaac, forces the Apprentice to put Lily's potential for darkness into Emma, the Apprentice traps inside the book, where he can no longer alter the course of things, but only record what happens. While Geppetto is carving the wardrobe to combat the Evil Queen's impending curse, Snow White asks the Blue Fairy for details on how her unborn daughter will find them in twenty-eight years and break the curse. The Blue Fairy assures her that sometime in the future the savior will know their story, although she doesn't know exactly how this will happen. Unknown to them, one of the Authors' books will appear someday to guide the savior. }} Henry brings Emma to Storybrooke, where he tries to make her believe in her destiny as the savior and even starts calling their mission to defeat Regina, Evil Queen, as Operation Cobra. From this point on, he often uses the book as a device for knowledge about the townspeople's true identities prior to the curse. He realizes a coma patient, John Doe, is Prince Charming, after seeing the uncanny resemblance that the man shares with the prince in the book. Henry also uses the book to help Sheriff Graham piece together his true identity, the Huntsman, which has unforeseen consequences when Regina notices Graham is getting too close to the truth and kills him. At some point, Henry buries his book at the site of his playground. He arrives to retrieve the book after hearing Regina is having the area bulldozed, but to his dismay, the demolition is already going on, leading him to believe his book has been destroyed. Rather than that, the book is safe with August, who took the book earlier and later adds the Pinocchio story to it, before planting the book for Emma to mysteriously find. After receiving the book back from Emma, Henry soon discovers the new addition of the Pinocchio story, with no idea August was the one who added the pages. While Emma deals with the shock of Henry being in a coma after he eats a poisoned apple turnover that Regina meant for her, she is unable to come up with a logic explanation for what happened. She empties out Henry's backpack and spots the book, which leads her to realize magic may be involved. Upon touching the book, Emma receives a flash of memories from her short time in the Enchanted Forest when she was an infant. This revelation finally helps her believe in magic, something Henry has been telling her since her arrival to Storybrooke. }} Later, Henry theorizes that the Dark Curse was capable of taking in people from other worlds, after learning Dr. Whale's true self is not an Enchanted Forest native, especially since his story does not exist in the book. }} Isaac tricks Regina into giving him both the magic quill and ink needed for rewriting stories. He begins writing new stories under Mr. Gold's directive in a blank book, Heroes and Villains, as Regina, Emma, and their allies search through various blank storybooks in the Sorcerer's mansion to figure out what Mr. Gold's plan is. Despite help from August, who directs the group into getting answers from the Apprentice, they are too late to stop Isaac from putting the finishing touches in the new book. This newly written story creates an alternate reality for Mr. Gold and the other Storybrooke residents to live in, one where the roles of heroes and villains are flipped. Unaffected by Isaac's rewrite, Henry eventually tracks down the Author and sends both of them into the world of the Heroes and Villains book. Within the alternate reality, the boy joins forces with Regina and Emma to interrupt Robin's wedding to Zelena, in the hopes that this false world will be undone if Regina gives true love's kiss to Robin. Instead, Regina lays dying after protecting Henry from being grievously injured by Rumplestiltskin. Henry picks up the quill, which chooses him as the next Author, giving him the power to reverse things. With Regina's blood, he uses it as ink to rewrite a new ending for Heroes and Villains, one in which Regina's sacrifice restores everyone to their actual lives. After this reversion, the Heroes and Villains storybook becomes blank. }} }} As Henry's time in the Underworld comes to a close, he decides to finish Operation Firebird, a mission to help people in the Underworld with their unfinished business so they can move on to a better place. With the quill's power, he writes down each person's unfinished business on blank storybook pages. Henry and his family later end up trapped in the library, but Regina and Emma's combined magic helps them escape. Before following his family to the portal to Storybrooke, Henry leaves behind the Underworld storybook with more pages that he wrote for those with unfinished business. After the heroes' departure home, Cruella hides the book underground near the River of Lost Souls, in order to prevent more souls from moving on. Later, Hook and King Arthur go to retrieve the book after they acquire the missing pages from Hades' story. One of the lost souls in the river rises up to snatch the book, but the men defeat the being by burning it with fire. Hook catches the book before it can fall into the river, and then places the pages into the book so the information can get to Emma. Meanwhile, in Storybrooke, Emma is doing book research on Hades, when she stops to flip through Henry's storybook. She becomes sad while looking at an illustration of herself and Hook dancing at a ball during their time travel stint. After putting the book aside, Emma is shocked when it opens by itself and reveals pages from Hades' story, which she realizes is Hook's doing. During Henry and Violet's quest to erase magic for good, they follow a clue from Neal's journal to the the New York Public Library, where they find innumerable storybooks. Henry notices each of them has the same cover and book title as his own book, but they contain stories different from his. After looking through all of them, he and Violet do not find anything in them about how to destroy magic. In the second volume of the Once Upon a Time book,File:602InThisBook.png the stories within it become instrumental in helping Henry figure out the identities of the Untold Stories residents. He attempts to use it to discover a stranger's name, however, the man tells him that he isn't important enough to have his own story. Later, Henry uses the book again to learn about Clorinda's story as a clue to finding where Ashley is. }} }} Known Books *Henry's storybook *''Heroes and Villains'' *Blank storybooks in the Sorcerer's mansion *Underworld storybook *New York Public Library storybooks **''Once Upon a Time: Volume II'' *Henry's second storybook *Emma's storybook *''Once Upon a Time'' novel *Hundreds of other books with the stories told differently, in the Sorcerer's mansion *Wish Rumplestiltskin's prison books List of Owners *The Apprentice † *Archie Hopper *August Booth *The Black Fairy † *Cruella De Vil † *Henry Mills *Hook *Isaac Heller *Lucy *Mary Margaret Blanchard *Merlin † *Nick Branson † *Regina Mills *Robin Hood † *Rumplestiltskin (Wish Realm) *Victoria Belfrey † List of Users *August Booth *David Nolan *Emma Swan *Henry Mills *Hook *Isaac Heller *Lucy *Merida *Mother Superior *Neal Cassidy † *Regina Mills *Henry (Wish Realm) *Tamara † *Robin Hood † *Victoria Belfrey † *Violet Morgan *Will Scarlet Trivia |-|On-Screen Notes= On-Screen Hotes *An excerpt from the Grimm fairytale "The Pink" can be seen (upside-down) on the back of the storybook page that Lucy finds in her room.File:712PageFallsOutFlipped.png File:712PageFallsOut.png |-|Set Notes= Unseen Pages *An online auction from December 2018 offers glimpses of unseen storybook pages: (Photograph) **The Grimm fairy tale "The Four Skillful Brothers" ("…and for the most part very honorable.” So he let himself be persuaded, and went with the man, and learnt ... “Fetch the eggs down without disturbing the bird which is sitting hatching them.” The skillful thief climbed up and took the five eggs from beneath the bird, which never observed what he was doing, and remained quietly sitting where she was, and brought them down to his…"). ***Another excerpt ("…and took the five eggs from beneath the bird, which never observed what he was doing, and remained quietly sitting where she was…") appears on a different page. (Photograph) **The Grimm fairy tale "The Elves and the Shoemaker" ("…when they saw the clothes lying for them, they laughed and chuckled, and seemed mightily delighted. Then they dressed themselves in the twinkling of an eye, and danced and capered and sprang about, as merry as could be; till at last they danced out at the door, and away over the…") **A page with an illustration, "The third time, she wore the star dress which sparkled at every step", from the fairy tale "The True Sweetheart". The picture was created by the famous book illustrator Arthur Rackham for the book Little Brother & Little Sister and Other Tales by the Brothers Grimm, published in 1917. Appearances }} Note: "Archive" denotes archive footage. The storybook is lying on the table in front of Henry in "Where Bluebirds Fly".File:618YourAuthorsPen2.png File:618NoEscapingIt.png Compare the spine and binding on the big book lying on the table to the storybook in this image: File:310PanryReading.png See also *Authors *Author's Pen *Magic Ink References }} Category:Magic Category:Fictional Books Category:Elements with Wish Realm Versions Category:Elements with Underworld Versions